Notes

Some critics have written that Morrison's characters are too depressing and that they tend to play the role of victims, making them overdetermined. In other words, they think Morrison's characters are determined by race and gender rather than living, breathing people. On the other hand, critics have praised Morrison's lyrical writing, even if it is at times vulgar. In 1993, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the committee praised her as follows: "She delves into the language itself, a language she wants to liberate from the fetters of race. And she addresses us with the luster of poetry." The committee was referring to the innovative way in which Morrison uses language and organizes her narrative in works such as Beloved . One of Morrison's ideas is that language itself is constrained by race and that she has to break through the traditional ways of using language to fully express the way her characters experience life in a racist society. Hence, even...

Prior to the Civil War (the time period of Rifles for Watie ), there was frequent conflict between Kansas (where Jeff is from) and Missouri. In 1821, Missouri was admitted to the United States as a state where slavery was legal. However, according to the Missouri Compromise, no future state north of the latitude that marked Missouri’s southern border could be a slave state. In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed, opening Kansas to those who wanted the territory to become a future slave state. Many people from the North moved to Kansas in order to make it free. The struggle between these two groups continued throughout the Civil War. The Bushwackers from Missouri often crossed the border to attack towns where abolitionists held sway, such as Lawrence. People from Kansas, called Jayhawkers, entered Missouri to attack slave-holding families. This conflict led to Kansas becoming known as “Bleeding Kansas.” After the Civil War started in 1861, Kansas became a free state, and Missouri...

There were differences between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. One difference was in the economic activities of these colonies. In Massachusetts, there was a great deal of manufacturing. Due to the rocky soil, subsistence farming was the kind of farming done in Massachusetts. Shipping, manufacturing, and fishing were the main economic activities. In Pennsylvania, the soil was more fertile. Farmers grew grain and sold it throughout the colonies. Unlike Massachusetts, Pennsylvania had a cash crop, which was grain. Some manufacturing was also done in Pennsylvania. Another difference was in the area of religion. In Pennsylvania, there was a great deal of religious tolerance and religious freedom. People of many different backgrounds and religions settled in Pennsylvania. In Massachusetts, the Puritan religion was the main religion. There was no religious tolerance or religious freedom in Massachusetts. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were different kinds of colonies. Pennsyl...

The narrator has a symbolic "baptism" in the greasy lake. In this story, he is looking back on his life and particularly at a significant night during his naive youth. He and his friends act the part of rebels but they get a real taste of the dark side of life on this night he is describing. After the brawl and their sexual assault of the girl, the narrator retreats to the lake. This is not the purifying baptism noted in religious doctrine. It is an immersion in a greasy lake, during which he bumps into a corpse. He has been baptized by the dark side of life and this illustrates his own immoral actions as well as the immorality that exists in the world.  After they assault the girl from the car, they flee the scene. As he's leaving, the narrator hears the girl's screaming and sobbing and he notes the allusions to the Sabine women and Anne Frank. The Sabine women were an Italian tribe abducted and raped by the Romans. Anne Frank and her family were abducted by the Na...

The puppies were secretly trained to be guard dogs. Like the milk and apples, the puppies also secretly disappear on the farm. They are part of Napoleon's plan to acquire and keep power for himself. He can’t adequately do that without a way to enforce his will. Since he is not bigger and stronger than the other animals, he needs someone who is, and who has teeth. Napoleon is pretty quiet about what is actually happening with the puppies. They are mostly there one day and gone the next. He doesn’t tell anyone he is training them to be guard dogs, instead claiming he is educating them. It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to nine sturdy puppies. As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education (Chapter 3). It is around this time that the milk and apples also disappear, although the pigs claim it has nothing to do with privile...

In the short story "A Sound of Thunder," Ray Bradbury uses Eckels' careless personality and actions, as well as the narratives internal and external conflicts, to emphasize the theme that all actions--no matter how seemingly inconsequential--have an enormous impact across time. The story follows a hunter named Eckels, living in the year 2055, who pays $10,000 in order to travel back to the Jurassic era to hunt a Tyrannosaurus rex. Despite the fact that Eckels is clearing warned by his guide that he must take care not to disturb too much of "history" in order to avoid setting off a cataclysmic chain of alterations, Eckels does not abide this advice. Terrified by the dinosaur, Eckels stumbles off the path and, in doing so, inadvertently makes a terrible mistake: he steps on a butterfly, killing it. When Eckels returns to modern times, huge changes have occurred as a result of the butterfly's death. The results of an important election have altered, and the Eng...

By the end of the book, the revolution that established Animal Farm has taken exactly this course. The pigs, who emerged as leaders of the uprising and in implementing Animalism on the farm, quickly become corrupted with their newfound power. Even before Snowball is purged from the farm, the pigs are allowing themselves extra privileges, like milk and apples in their mash. Over time, Napoleon continues to abuse the considerable power he has amassed. He trains fierce attack dogs that are used to kill those whom he views as disloyal. He and the other pigs begin to drink alcohol, sleep in the farmhouse, and even wear human clothes. They engage in shady deals with humans outside the farm, some of which go very badly. Squealer justifies their behavior to the other animals, and the pigs gradually alter the Seven Commandments to read that some animals are more equal than others. In the end, the animals are more miserable than they were under Jones, even loyal Boxer has been sent to the knacke...